The husband of the household desires an office area away from a household of cats in various stages awaiting adoption as well as garage space. Other design factors include a very pleasant existing garden and waterfall in the backyard and the need for a turn around to avoid backing out into a heavily traveled road. These factors were taken into account with a 2 story accessory building: a garage with an upper story office. There is an area in front of the garage to turn around and a generous back deck covers a potting area with a utility sink. This garage addition is extremely energy efficient with high-R insulation in the roof, walls and floor, and air sealed. As the home sits on a hill embankment water mitigation was also taken into account. A variance was procured to change the side lot zoning from 7′ to 3′ so the garage addition could be shifted over to maintain garden views from an existing room in the home. The roof was designed so that midroof is under 20′, which is acceptable in the residential code for an accessory building in Atlanta.
